Customer Reviews

Punk Singles Collection 77-80

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Sham 69 was never meant to be the most important of punk bands. They wrote and performed, with abandon, a handful of memorable, simple sing-along anthems. Armies of guitars and vocals hit you over the head. Raise your pint glass and belt out those choruses! Since Sham 69 weren't the most consistent when it came to quality of songwriting, this collection is pretty much all you'll ever need. You get Borstal Breakout, If The Kids Are United, Hersham Boys, and a few other standouts, all together on one disc. This definitely belongs in your collection, if your collection includes things like Clash, Damned, Sex Pistols, Ramones, Buzzcocks, etc. If you don't have the seminal work from those bands, then you probably don't need this.

You can't begin to understand classic 70's UK punk rock without reference to Sham 69. It's true they weren't cute and media positioned like the Pistols, didn't have any pretence to being "clever" like the Adverts, didn't have the inventiveness or the social awareness of the Clash. They were freakin' rabble rousers as every anthem on this album demonstrates. Full bore attack, with no mercy. This music is so raw it bleeds. Yes, as another reviewer notes, Sham did draw a heavyweight crowd that would probably have voted for the National Front if they'd known how to draw an 'x' on a ballot slip. Their performances did have a sense of 1930's Munich beer hall about them. Downright violent at times. But that was part of punk, ladies, it was a time of deep social divide, of mistrust, resentment and anger. This music tells it, in a way that the Pistols did not. There was nothing fashionable about Sham - it wasn't a bunch of middle class kids getting up on stage with safety pins through their noses. This was the real working class deal. And to his credit, lead singer Jimmy Pursey's stage command never allowed things to turn truly ugly. He could whip the crowd into a frenzy and with a word or a look stop them from going over the edge. To watch him perform was to understand what a working class hero looked like. Buy this music. Feel the sheer nobility of it, because beneath the juggernaut that is Sham 69 there is a purity and a dignity you simply have to respect.

This is a classic. Punk sounds good in the old days. This is REAL punk. Even if you like the poseur bands like the sex pistols, greenday, blink 182, and good charlotte, I still recommend you getting this. Sham 69 is not only better than those bands I just mentioned, but these guys are legitiment punks. This is a CD I can listen to from beginning to end and never miss a beat. This was a great investment, and I strongly recommend this to old school and new school punx! BUY NOW!!!

save the last 4 tracks, this cd is awesome. the first 11 are their most oi!/street punk sounding that are on here. the rest are great as well, but have more of a straight rock and somewhat pop feel, yet still retain their punk sound and attitude. i'm glad that left the horrible garbage off the 'volunteer' album on here...it's even worse than the last 4 songs which are disposable enough for my tastes.

Sham 69 were not a skinhead band, nor did they have neo-Nazi leanings. However, they were very welcoming to their National Front fanbase, many of whom were basically walking hate crimes. And on more than one occasion Sham made naive remarks in the press which cause me to consider unloading all of my Sham records at the nearest Value Village. These faults don't set them apart from the big 1970s UK punk bands. Long lists could be made of the dubious comments made (in print and on record) by the Pistols, Adam and the Ants, the Banshees, and a lot of other popular UK punk bands. It seems too easy to dismiss this as "That was a particular time in a particular place," and move on. I dunno what to say on this matter really. There's a great essay by Roger Sabin in the otherwise so-so book "Punk Rock: So What?" if you're interested in reading about this (most good libraries carry it).

All that said, I have not rid my collection of Sham 69. The objectionable things about Sham don't come up in their music, and Sham are just simply one of the tightest bands ever. Or at least they were. The first nine tracks of this CD are amazing, collecting pretty much all of Sham's best songs ever, including not only the mega-anthem "Kids Are United," but also essentials "Borstal Breakout," "Red London," and "Ulster." These are solid punk songs, and catchy too. The passage of nearly twenty-five years has left me without a context for what Sham's singing about much of the time, but the urgency, anger, and idealism of these songs is quite awesome. But then almost all the songs after the first nine are pretty much forgettable. This CD doesn't hold up as a cohesive album or even a good listen start-to-finish (for that you'd need to check out their first LP, "Tell Us the Truth"), but the first nine songs are just too too good. Buying this is a lot easier and cheaper than tracking down the original 45s.

So I can't really advise you on the matter of Sham 69. They come with baggage, but it's not in the music. They are a great band, but not one I'd vote into office, y'know? In a way, I like having a punk band or two around who I can disagree with. Its good to engage your punk! Not every band can be Fugazi.

Punk was, in its early years, mostly conquered by artistic, smart and witty characters with finally a way to express themselves. TV Smith, Johnny Rotten, Richard Hell... you get the point. Back then there was no "new wave", punk was about various different attitudes and styles. The mohawk-and-anarchy- stereotypic times were ahead.

Every now and then, it`s still a pleasure to hear some original boot-stomping, fist-pumpin` punk, and that`s what Sham 69 did the best. I consider Sham 69 to be one of the best and most important punk bands in British history, as they spawned the Oi!- movement (although Cock Sparrer may have been the first) and countless other bands in the progress. Sham 69 had anthemic, catchy and strong songs you could sing along to, and they were, unlike many bands, very honest about what they did. They didn`t wear punk-fashion clothes or spike their hair, they were working-class and proud of it.

Although there have been talk about whether or not they were racist, neo-Nazis or skinheads, it`s complete crap. It`s true that Oi! is a music genre that has always attracted skinheads and other morons, but it started strictly as anthemic street-punk. Sham 69 may have had a roughneck partisan following, but really, the band had a Jewish drummer and Jimmy Pursey (their charismatic vocalist) was a veganist and his political ideas were far-left. The band tried to shake off the following of the National Front, who seemed to stick with the band like a magnet for some reason, as they played at Rock Against Racism- concerts etc. So I think it`s safe to say that Sham 69 wasn`t by any means a neo-Nazi band.

Now, this should be a review so I`ll give you some of my thoughts about this marvelous CD. Sham 69 had tons of absolutely awesome songs, but their albums weren`t up to par with their singles. Tell Us The Truth was a great album (even if it had a couple filler tracks), and That`s Life was a pretty good one too, but their albums went downhill after that. So, a fine introduction to their work is Punk Singles Collection, rounding up all of their 1977-80 singles` A- and B- sides. And what a collection it is. Sham 69 weren`t just the first Oi! band, but the most successful too. They had 7 charting singles, and while listening to this album one can`t but to wonder why Sham 69 isn`t as widely praised and remembered as the more famous bands. These songs are full of energy, just listen to tracks like Borstal Breakout, Angels With Dirty Faces, If The Kids Are United or Hersham Boys. The collection only has a couple of bad tracks (mainly from the end, when Sham 69 became way too pompous and silly), and couple of fillers like the Beatles- cover and Sunday Morning Nightmare, which are more like jokes. But like the first 9 songs, it`s pure gold. The live tracks are great too, the live version of Tell Us The Truth beats up the studio version easily. The crowd, Sham Army as the fans were known, sings along mightily, and you`ve got to hear the ending of Rip Off (another classic), where Pursey commands a group of fans to stop fighting. Just shows what Sham 69 meant to their fans. Anyways, way too many classics to list. So, if you like original british punk, I recommend this VERY STRONGLY. You might end up a Sham 69 fan.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE BAND. SHAM 69 BABY. AND THIS IS THE BEST ONE TO GET IF YOUR NOT REALLY A FAN ,BUT WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THEM. HOWEVER BUYING ALL THEIR CDS IS GOOD TOO

This CD has all the great SHAM69 songs on it. Instead of buying all their CDs you can pick this one up and get all of the best.